One Million Apps — And Growing Fast

Posted by
Sam Churchill
on
December 12th, 2011

Last Wednesday, a developer pushed a button and the one millionth mobile app went to market, reports the NY Times. “Every week about 100 movies get released worldwide, along with about 250 books,” said Anindya Datta, the founder and chairman of Mobilewalla, which helps users navigate the mobile app market. “That compares to the release of around 15,000 apps per week.”

In October 2008 the known app universe was 8,000 Apple titles. Mobilewalla began analyzing Android and Windows apps in 2009, and added BlackBerry a year later. The 100,000-app milestone was passed in December 2009. In little more than a year, the total passed 500,000 and exceeded 750,000 six months after that. Five months later: one million.

For the surge in apps and the ability of almost anyone to bring an app to market is a chicken-and-egg story, said Anindya Datta, the founder and chairman of Mobilewalla. Developers who have created fewer than 10 apps make up 80 percent of the producers, he said. “Anyone with a good idea can outsource the code, and they own a new app.” In January, Mobilewalla will begin tracking ranking, downloads and revenue for individual apps.

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